Inspired by The Antikythera mechanism and ancient Greek astronomical cycles
The Calendar Wreck
A recovered machine predicts eclipses of places that have never existed.
What the party believes
At a museum reception, the characters see a newly recovered gear from the Antikythera wreck. When a conservator turns it, every clock in the room loses eleven minutes and one guest disappears from the photographs on the wall. A salvage diver named Nikandros asks the party to join a return expedition before the authorities lock the site down.
The wreck changes each time they dive. Cargo moves between holds. Skeletons wear modern watches. Nikandros insists currents are shifting the debris, even after the party finds his name on an ancient passenger list.
Recover the missing gears and stop the mechanism from removing more people from the present.
Where the trail leads
- Dive through a wreck whose rooms belong to different versions of the same voyage.
- Question survivors who appear only during the missing eleven minutes each night.
- Follow Nikandros into an eclipse shadow where a lost island city stands above the water.
- Assemble the final gear and see which people the machine intends to erase next.
- Confront Nikandros in the lighthouse while several histories fight to become real.
What actually happened
Nikandros comes from a city removed from history by the mechanism. Ancient operators used the device to keep possible timelines from colliding, trimming away whole communities whenever their survival threatened a larger war. Nikandros has spent centuries inside the discarded minutes looking for a way home.
Restoring his city will overwrite parts of the present, including people the characters know. Leaving the mechanism intact condemns everyone already erased. Nikandros will fight to turn it, even if the current world has to make room by force.
Where it can end
- Restore the lost city and accept the changes it makes to the modern coast.
- Break the mechanism and let fragments of several histories coexist.
- Stop Nikandros and preserve the present while carrying proof of those who were erased.
The history behind the story
The Antikythera mechanism was recovered from an ancient Mediterranean shipwreck. Its interlocking gears modeled calendrical and astronomical cycles, including eclipse patterns and the 19 year Metonic cycle. Time alteration and competing histories are original fantasy elements.
Content notes
drowning, loss of identity, erased communities. Change or fade any element that does not suit your table.